Chapter 72: The Coastal Heist (3)

As the resentful energy continued to batter the golden barrier, the Sanskrit inscriptions began to show signs of decay, with cracks appearing, and blood trickled constantly from Wuxiang’s lips. Yet, thanks to the bell’s obstruction, the onslaught finally ceased. Now the city of Binhai lay shrouded in mist, and at its center yawned a massive, bottomless pit.

Once the golden barrier before Wuxiang dispersed, he hastily dashed toward the pit. With several leaps, he reached its depths, where the stench of corpses hung heavy. The ground was slick with blackish-red viscous fluids, and countless grotesque faces, stiff and formed from flesh and blood, stared blankly—this pit resembled a mass grave of untold thousands.

Wuxiang searched for a while but found no trace of the whale aberration’s ghostly core.

The sound of flowing water suddenly caught his attention.

Following the noise, Wuxiang walked to the edge of the pit, where a broken pipe jutted from the wall, gushing tap water.

“So it managed to escape!”

Wuxiang’s face darkened with bitterness, and he sighed inwardly. Despite his best efforts to suppress the whale aberration, even bringing one of the few Buddhist treasures from Hua Nation, fate had other plans. The water flowing from the broken pipe reduced the golden cage’s restraint on the aberration, giving it room to act, allowing it to stall Wuxiang with psychic pollution and, at the cost of destroying its body, protect its ghostly core and flee.

Now, if the whale aberration found enough flesh and blood, it would only be a matter of time before it returned to its six-star body. As for tracking it, currently no nation had found a way to trace high-level ghosts. Low-level ghosts below five stars could still be detected by their magnetic resonance with resentful energy, but high-level ghosts required five-star spiritual scouts, who were rare and still prone to losing the trail. Hua Nation had only a handful of such scouts.

Seeing that there was nothing more to be done, Wuxiang used the protruding parts of the wall to climb out of the pit with several agile movements. Forcing a six-star aberration to self-destruct its body had left Wuxiang wounded, especially after he had blocked part of the resentful energy’s impact.

Returning to the surface, Wuxiang gathered the fragments of the Buddhist treasure bell and then walked slowly away…

Meanwhile, the remaining core of the whale aberration followed the tap water pipe in reverse, quickly reaching the Binhai suburb’s water treatment plant. The workers there were all in the city’s northern district, making this place a hidden haven for the time being.

A bloody, flesh-muddled head, resembling a meatball, leapt out of the plant’s disinfection pool. Having lost its aberrant offspring, it now had to hunt flesh for itself.

Now, encountering any spiritual scout—or even an awakened one—would mean its easy demise. Having lost its body thanks to Wuxiang, it was now weaker than some newborn aberrations.

At the same time, the whale aberration’s self-destruction had released its resentful energy, turning Binhai City into a treasure trove for ghosts. That pure energy was more tempting to low-level ghosts than human negative emotions. Only the allure of strange celestial phenomena could compare.

If nothing unexpected happened, the resentful energy in Binhai City would soon spawn a horde of ghosts unless dealt with swiftly. Thus, a large number of spiritual scouts and awakened ones would be needed to cleanse the city, requiring tremendous supplies.

Because of Wuxiang’s battle with the whale aberration, the entire city would likely need rebuilding. The time and money consumed would be enormous—surely a headache for Hua Nation’s Ministry of Finance. Yet compared to the devastation of the northern coastline of Great America, where seventeen cities across two provinces were destroyed, the damage here was just a single city, with casualties limited to those citizens who lingered behind. Such losses were still acceptable.

Soon all spiritual scouts and awakened ones received new orders from the Investigation Department: purge the ghosts of Binhai City.

The task was simple—buy up every ghost core in the city at thirty percent higher points than before. As for using cores from other places to cheat? Try it, if you dare.

Not to mention, ghosts tainted with the whale aberration’s resentful energy all carried similar fluctuations. And leaving a city with ghost cores—did you think the scouts were blind? Did you not know the Purification Society was under strict crackdown?

While Binhai City methodically entered reconstruction, the resentful energy enveloping it began to shift. Near the suburbs, about twenty percent of the total energy was drawn into a mountain!

That mountain, Haisan, was sealed by several magnetic fields. Wu Zui’s worst fears had come true—the aberration slumbering in Haisan had awakened, stimulated by the abundance of resentful energy!

All this unfolded while Wu Zui lay sleeping in a solitary tent in the city’s northern district, oblivious. The scouts rescued from the sea, who had barely survived, knew nothing. Even Wuxiang, who had sensed the whale aberration’s arrival and brought the Buddhist treasure bell, had no idea.

After quietly absorbing nearly thirty percent of the resentful energy, the Haisan aberration abruptly ceased and hid away again. The magnetic fields around the mountain showed no signs of disturbance, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

Foolhardy aberrations like the whale, charging blindly, were dangerous but not terrifying. Aberrations like Haisan, capable of concealment and restraint, were truly frightening—for no one could guess when it might explode.

In short, though Binhai City had survived the whale aberration, a far greater storm was brewing. No one knew when disaster might strike the city again.

Meanwhile, sitting at the rear of the Xianglong One, nestled against Ming Rou Rou’s embrace, Xiao Ke’ai slowly peeled open her eyes, rubbing her neck. The familiar vehicle and unfamiliar crew gave her an uneasy feeling.

Sure enough, after questioning the two men her father had sent in front, Xiao Ke’ai’s anger flared—a rare sight for the usually adorable girl.

The Cat Commander’s fluffy, chubby face was stretched by Xiao Ke’ai until it was nearly a meter long. Luckily, the Cat Commander was not human and could restore its face; otherwise, it would have been left a big-faced cat!

“Stupid master! Rotten master! You knocked me out and had people drag me away! Useless master, die—uh—no, you can’t die! If I ever see you again, I’ll beat you into a pig, then make you treat me to dinner until you go bankrupt!”

She kneaded the Cat Commander’s blue fur, nearly making it cry! If it weren’t made of magnetic energy, it would surely have perished by now!

“Why am I always the one who gets hurt?”

While Xiao Ke’ai tormented the Cat Commander, Ming Rou Rou beside her busily scribbled in a notebook resting on her lap. The notebook had yet to be titled, but its contents were all Xiao Ke’ai’s analysis reports—from physiology to psychology, down to measurements and personality. Who knew what Ming Rou Rou had done before Xiao An Guo’s people arrived?

The reputation of the scientific madwoman was well deserved!

Under Xiao Ke’ai’s fury, after calling her father to vent, Xianglong One turned back toward Binhai City.

Of course, Xiao Ke’ai did not know that Xiao An Guo had agreed to let her return only because the crisis in Binhai City had been temporarily resolved. Otherwise, he would have knocked her out again before letting her risk herself there.

Once the battle between Wuxiang and the whale aberration ended, Wuxiang had reported the result. The whale’s core had escaped, and Wu Zui was gravely wounded, so Xiao An Guo had no choice but to settle them both in Yanjing City.

He knew that if Wu Zui stayed there, Xiao Ke’ai would find some way to sneak over. It was better to bring them both to Yanjing, for his own peace of mind.

Thus, Xianglong One sped along the highway toward Binhai City…

Binhai City, in the army’s temporary hospital:

After being injected with adrenaline, Wu Zui finally awoke. The first sensation was pain—intense pain!

His skin, scorched by karmic fire, looked much like ordinary burns, but medicine was useless against such wounds. Worse still, his soul had been burned by karmic fire, sending stabbing pain through his mind, and with not a trace of magnetic energy left in his body, Wu Zui felt an unprecedented weakness.

He glanced around—the military green tent seemed sturdy. Two silver suitcases sat on either side of the bed, and a large magnetic device enveloped the room in protective energy, making it feel very safe.

Wu Zui finally breathed a sigh of relief. The war of attrition with the shadow ghost had ended with his victory. Though it was a pyrrhic one, it was better than defeat—at least he was alive!

“Living is wonderful!”

Savoring the atmosphere, so different from the shadow realm, Wu Zui relaxed and drifted back to sleep.

When he woke again, two people were at his side: Xiao Ke’ai and Ming Rou Rou. Their bright gazes showed vigor, but the dark circles and faint sweat revealed the hardships of their journey.

“Master, good evening!”

Xiao Ke’ai smiled angelically. But the next moment, her sharp little canine teeth sank into Wu Zui’s wrist!

“Hiss—” Wu Zui sat up abruptly, crying out in pain and trying to shake her off.

Yet, weak and wounded as he was, Wu Zui had no strength, and Xiao Ke’ai had no intention of letting go. Her head swung with his wrist until she drew blood from it…

Tasting the metallic flavor in her mouth, Xiao Ke’ai finally released him. Two rows of vivid bite marks told of Wu Zui’s suffering—and her anger at being left behind!

“If this ever happens again—if you dare knock me out, I’ll bite you to death! Hmph!” Xiao Ke’ai flashed her white teeth and shook her fist at Wu Zui, then turned and left.

Beside her, Ming Rou Rou continued scribbling in her notebook, recording everything…